Natascha Sohl
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Natascha Sohl

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"GRTR! RISING STARS STAGE 2/Cambridge Rock Festival 08/2007"

GRTR! RISING STARS STAGE 2
Cambridge Rock Festival 2007
18 August 2007


The only disappointment of multi-stage festivals such as this is that no matter how hard you try it’s practically impossible to get around every band you want to see. Decisions have to be made, sometimes for the flimsiest of reasons one band is preferred to another. These plans always seem to get revised, such as happened on this occasion. I had fully intended to watch perhaps 15 minutes of her set, and then go into the main arena to watch the night’s headliners, The Australian Pink Floyd. Though, by then it was too late, I was totally captivated.
Having previously only heard “Hands Off My Past” from the GRTR! Rising Stars CD, I had expected someone of the Alanis Morissette ilk, though whilst I would say there were some similarities, it was a pleasant surprise to find there is a whole lot more to Natascha Sohl. With feminine aggression, passion and sexuality in equal measure, more than once bringing to mind Gwen Stefani, she completely stole the show.

Stunningly good looking, she was totally at ease delivering a vocal performance as good as any over the weekend. Charismatically commanding attention as they performed a set packed with 12 outstanding tracks, including, Body Beautiful, If I Was A Boy, Naked and the title track from the much-anticipated forthcoming album, Dirty Little Word.
Fresh from a stint in the USA, playing summer camps in Maine, Natascha and the band Si Jones, Mick Goodman, Roger Davis along with stand in drummer Joe Yoshida should be totally convinced that they are heading places. Thoroughly entertaining with a set heavily based on her upcoming album, It’s a shame more people didn’t catch this hour long set from someone, who can truly be classed as a rising star. In the not too distant future, there will be plenty of people kicking themselves for missing this opportunity!
Review by Dave Hunter
Photos © Ian and Clare Pollard, Wolfie

http://www.getreadytorock.com/reviews2007/crf_stage2_gig.htm
- by Dave Hunter


"Natascha Sohl : Dirty Little Word Album"

NATASCHA SOHL – DIRTY LITTLE WORD. GRANITE MUSIC. GENRE: POP ROCK
When I first received this album my immediate thoughts were along the lines of "Great! Another pop-rock poppet, just what the world needs". How wrong was I? Very wrong, that’s how wrong. There’s a lot more to our Natascha (she’s British, so that makes her ours) than meets the eye. If you strip away the veneer and scratch below the surface what you’ll find is a very talented young lady who knows her way around a good song. This is her second album and it builds on the moderate success of 2004’s "Strange Fascination" to great effect. For her new album she re-located to New York and recorded the whole album with songwriter and producer Russ DeSalvo and the results are nothing short of impressive. If anyone remembers the nineties pop-duo Scarlet and their fantastic albums ("Naked" and "Scarlet") then you’ll identify with Natascha as this is who she reminds me of the most. She might not have their lyrical elegance, but she’s damn close. Tracks such as "If I Was A Boy" (my personal favourite), "Beauty In The Silence" (Very like Scarlet and co-written with Martin Briley, no less), "Fade" (a perfect example of powerful songwriting), "Naked" (pop angst at its finest) and "Dirty Little Word" (as good as anything in the charts at the moment) are the type of songs that should propel this girl onto bigger and better things. I like this album and so will you.
ROB EVANS
POWERPOINTS 9
- POWERPLAY magazine : Issue 109


"NAKED : Natascha Sohl"

"Naked",this song is taken from the upcoming album "Dirty little word" that will be out later this year.

This song has literally built a nest in my speaker system and refuses to leave,it's like a bird that has found his home under the roof of your house and simply stays there to have kiddies. It's the same thing with this pop pearl that Natalie Umbruglia would die for to release as her own song,wonderful melodies.

- www.melodic.net : Swedish Heavy Rock webzine


"Natasha Sohl (sic) Naked Granite Music"

I predicted big things for Natasha Sohl last year and that could have been the kiss of death, but having heard this, her latest single, I am sure that the prediction was right. ….. These are exciting times for the ladies in the pop/rock arena as they seem to be taking a solid hold of the market and Natasha Sohl is grabbing her handful.

Naked (and the accompanying I’m Not Listening) – taken from the forth-coming Dirty Little Word album – is good melodic rock music, something that Miss Sohl is a sure fire flag bearer for! Don’t be fooled by the image either as Natasha’s music will do the talking for her. Great stuff!

Martin Hudson
- Classic Rock Society Magazine : 1st May 2006 – June issue


"Natascha Sohl : Naked"

….Natascha Sohl is the angsty rock chick to rival Avril Lavigne and Liz Phair, with great vocals that sound like what Natalie Imbruglia could do if she just put a little bit more oomph in to it.

9/10

- www.youngscot.co.uk


"Natascha Sohl : Strange Fascination (Granite Music)"

Natascha is different from the other singers here: she rocks! The 13 tracks on this self-penned album are all catchy and passionate, and are sure to produce more than a few lit cigarette lighters when she performs live. While many female solo singers try to ape Britney, Natascha sticks to straightahead rock, complete with crunchy guitars, soaring choruses and massive drums. The stripped down production allows each song and her voice to breathe. Strange Fascination has a similar feel to Texas's 1989 debut, Southside. While Natascha does not have the vocal dexterity of Sharleen Spiteri, she can produce foot-stompin' janglers, like Giving It All Away and the funky, bluesy What You Want. Natascha covers her bases here, and does it very well.
- REVIEW : ALBUM - V Magazine : Thursday October 6th 2005


"Natascha Sohl : Strange Fascination"

Loaded albums don’t come much more loaded.

This smoking gun of a CD will no doubt impress industry people. Funny it hasn’t been picked up by the punters and made some serious progress. Firing on all cylinders, the glamorous named pussycat shows not only strength in depth but diversity.
There’s so much on offer here it’s mindblowing, with crossover appeal to the teeny brigade to mamas and papas – but it’s serious music - so don’t be fooled.
Packing a real punch, (mustn’t forget the delicate stuff either) Sohl is destined to be the next rock-chic, if she gets the lucky breaks. Her ‘strange fascination’ of fusing contemporary R&B with jazzy melodic rock-riffs (look out for stellar wailing guitar solos) and catchy hooks, it brings music well into the 21 century.

She’s got a distinctive ‘ girl band voice’ a la Girls Aloud, but that’s where comparisons end. Try a few listens and you’ll be suitably impressed – hold on it’s a hot ride and very cool. Possible? Yes.
You probably won’t hear an album quite like it all year. The lady’s been piling on the credibility for almost five years-her time has finally come - I hope.
Standout tracks: Are You Ready, Fine With Me, Forgive Me, Remember Me.

Elly Roberts - www.dvdfever.co.uk and www.allgigs.co.uk January 2005


"Natascha Sohl : Strange Fascination (Granite) ***"

A very decent debut from a British rocker whom some are already comparing with Avril Lavigne and Alanis Morissette. I’m not quite sure that comparing her with either of those two banshees is much of a compliment, but on this collection you can hear what they’re getting at. There are some very good pop songs here, full of sass, and, er, sohl.

by Marcus Dunk
- Daily Express : Friday October 29th 2004 : In Weekend Music section


"NATASCHA SOHL ‘Strange Fascination ’"

Natascha Sohl joins the growing legion of female singer-songwriters, it's a fairly crowded genre but soon she will be snapping at the heels of Alanis, Avril...and all the rest.

'Strange Fascination' is a superb debut with a confidence that would shame many an old-stager. It seems that Tash has been steadily building a following through live gigs and commanding the respect of both fans and fellow musos alike.

It would be invidious to single out particular tracks, because the whole album is consistently good. It's upbeat, catchy, angsty, and has the mandatory jangling guitars. If you like female singer-songwriter rock you will not fail to enjoy this.

Oh alright, then, opening track and first single 'Are You Ready?' sets the standard but 'Make Your Own Way', and 'Give It All Away' could both be hit singles. The latter in particular is a well-nigh perfect slice of pop rock that will have 'em air fisting in the auditorium. Great production, too, from Ben Jones.

'Remember Me' is characterised by its urgency, smouldering guitars and stark affirmation: 'Loving you, was it all a big mistake?". 'Walking Thru Space' with its dub backbeat, vocal effects and widescreen orchestration, is splendid.

Natascha Sohl has been described as "Lenny Kravitz meets Alanis Morrisette' but that's a bit throwaway because she's got her own groove and arguably more talent. Catch young Sohl now, because the stadiums beckon. You can smugly say to your mates in a few years time, as they download yet another i-Tune, 'I told you so'.
*****

25/8/2004
- Review by David Randall : www.getreadytorock.com


"Natascha Sohl, Strange Fascination"

Do TV talent shows leave you cold? Do you ever wonder what happened to the people who just wanted to make music, and whose first concerns weren’t your applause and your worship? The ones who didn’t want just to thrust their bodies at you in lieu of a real gift, but who desired only to move you, shake you, lift you, and maybe chew you to pieces. To make you laugh, to share a feeling, and to tell you that, even in your most shamed and screwed-up moments, someone had been there before, and come back alive. There is a songwriter who, through her music, does all this every time you listen to her.

Natascha Sohl’s debut album, Strange Fascination, is a remarkably palatable and cohesive work. It’s prompted innumerable comparisons to Avril Lavigne and Nelly Furtado. And, on the surface, there are similarities; they are all purveyors of a spirited, spunky rock. But where those two artists build up their work with layer upon layer of artifice, Sohl takes the opposite approach, stripping away all that is false, chipping away at artifice and affectation to reveal truth.

The late, legendary producer Nik Venet, who discovered the Beach Boys and mentored many great pop composers, always stressed the importance of truth in songwriting. This is a concept that Sohl has adeptly grasped. Her soulful, despondent ballads, such as Forgive Me, reveal a writer who realises that you express more by what you leave out, than by what you put in. Genuinely affecting ballads require a notoriously difficult balancing act – if the writer teeters too much to one side, their work is grossly saccharine. But if they wobble to the other, their songs can be limp and unmoving. Using language and music with restraint and a grownup sense of economy, Sohl performs one sleight of hand after another, lifting herself clean above the competition.

Cuts like lead-off single Are You Ready and Give It All Away peel back the outer layers of romantic affliction, to reveal beautiful and ugly realities, like spite, ardour, lust, jealousy and regret. Sohl makes no attempt to patronise her audience by drawing a veil over the darker side of love – and this upfront, b-s-free attitude makes Strange Fascination an absorbing journey of feelings. Sohl’s deceptively sweet voice crawls into the listener’s ears, and catches them unawares. Just as you think you’re going to be lulled and soothed, she outmanoeuvres you with a sudden display of petulance, anguish and bewildered rage. But the wounds she inflicts are then deftly healed through the underlying balm of her artistry. Her album is nothing short of aural seduction.

Amongst the other highlights are Make Your Own Way, with a verse that bristles with all the strutting elegance of the Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s finest work (a comparison that does far more justice to Sohl’s skills than the endless Lavigne references), and the disarmingly candid My Needs. Musically, Sohl has a good grip on the art of the one-hit hook – the twist in a melody line that leaves an audience demanding to hear it again. And again. Strange Fascination’s title track represents the very pinnacle of her gifts. Smart, open, foxy, straight-up and real.

Where other artists present us with mere clay, Natascha Sohl delivers the finished sculpture. Her songs have a longevity beyond mere ‘hit’ songs, because truth has a longer shelf life than fashion.

----------------

Charles Donovan is the Arts Editor of Woman & Home magazine, and a contributor to What’s On In London, The London Telegraph, The London Evening Standard, and allmusic.com, and rollingstone.com

22/01/04
- By Charles Donovan


Discography

Are You Ready? - Single CDPBRC 005
Give It All Away - Single CDPBRC 011
Strange Fascination - ALBUM
Forgive Me - Single CDPBRC 018
Naked - Single CDPBRC 061

Forthcoming Album : Dirty Little Word - release date to be confirmed

Photos

Bio

UK Rock singer, NATASCHA SOHL, has an extensive profile of excellent shows, from intimate private parties to sold-out arenas. Born in Paris and a twin, she showed musical promise from childhood (writing her first song at 8 years old), but formed her first band – little entity. – while at Sixth Form college. Later ditching her University media degree in favour of a Higher Diploma in Vocals from a music college, Natascha has performed with her band, and later as a Solo Artist, throughout the UK and also in the USA.

She wrote and released her first Album – STRANGE FASCINATION – in 2004 through Indie label, Granite Music, and received excellent critical notices from press and industry. Album No. 2 – DIRTY LITTLE WORD – was written and recorded in New York at the invitation of A-list song-writer/producer Russ DeSalvo and his team – a project of which everyone involved is justly very proud – and this has brought Natascha support in the New York, Los Angeles and Nashville music scenes, together with US management.

Natascha has gigged in the US with the new material on the Camplified tour two years running, and has also done various shows in New York, a Festival in Rhode Island, a student workshop at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, and radio and TV appearances for EXPN, Fox TV and CW11 respectively.

In 2007, two of Natascha’s songs (BODY BEAUTIFUL and AFTERGLOW) were Runners-Up in international song competitions and since then 4 other tracks from the forthcoming Album (NAKED, I’M SO HAPPY, BEAUTY IN THE SILENCE and FADE) were featured on MTV’s mega-hit show, The Hills, with FADE used again in another show, Newport Harbor, with a listed end credit. A further song, BODY BEAUTIFUL, was used in another MTV show, Legally Blonde.

With an increasing profile and a number of new songs in production, Natascha flies the flag for British music and home-grown talent. She has an excellent work ethic, memorable songs, genuine star quality and charismatic stage performances, both with her band and acoustically. Natascha is a consummate professional ; an artist whose music, from gut-wrenching ballads to full-on stadium anthems, has something for everyone, and she is more than capable of filling a spot in the male-dominated world of Rock stardom.

DIRTY LITTLE WORD is in the final stages of preparation for release.

www.nataschasohl.com
www.myspace.com/nataschasohl